In the world of browsing, website designers leverage URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers and URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) to indicate to the browser to load information or execute information-based actions or decisions based on a user taking action through “hyperlinks” or other “linked” object types within the content. For example, a webpage may include a URI attached to an item of text within a webpage. The text may be highlighted or changed to indicate that a user can select the text to load or execute the URI. In the example, a name of a company may be underlined and highlighted in a different text color, and, when a user selects the text, their computer or mobile device makes a phone call to the company based on a phone number embedded in the URI that is attached to the text.
In computing, a URI is a string of characters used to identify a name of a resource. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network, typically the Internet, using specific protocols. Schemes specifying a concrete syntax and associated protocols define each URI. The most common form of URI is the URL, frequently referred to informally as a web address. More rarely seen in usage is the Uniform Resource Name (URN), which was designed to complement URLs by providing a mechanism for the identification of resources in particular namespaces.
A URI scheme is the top level of the URI naming structure, e.g., HTTP, FTP, tel: etc. URIs and absolute URI references are formed with a scheme name, followed by a colon character (“:”), and the remainder of the URI is the scheme-specific part.
The most common URI/URL formats are prefixed with identifiers, such as HTTP/FTP, to indicate the type of content to the browser. In addition, non-content (action-based) identifiers such as “mailto:” or “tel:” indicate the ability to send e-mail or call a phone number, respectively, (e.g. mailto:developer@esna.com, tel:9057079700). When using the action-based identifier, the browser or host operating system can determine how the action is interpreted by the browser application itself, or by invoking another application running within the computing system environment. The recipients of the invocation are termed “handlers” (as in, having the ability to handle provided information content in a relevant and functional manner). Examples of handlers can include e-mail applications, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, which have the ability to handle “mailto:” links, or can include desktop applications, such as Skype or X-lite, which are able to handle tel: links to initiate phone based dialing and audio calling capabilities.
Unfortunately, many applications do not natively enable the capability to handle such URI/URL links or content in a relevant manner. For example, many chat or audio/video calling services, that may be used in a similar manner do not enable the simplicity of the URI actions via the previously described invocation process.
Thus, there are limitations in the current technology as many applications are unable to handle URI invocation actions. Accordingly, there is a need for providing a method and a system that overcomes these limitations.